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Bo Young, White Crane Institute programs

Gay Men’s Leadership Academy

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My…haven’t we all been busy lately!? I’ve been trying to set down my thoughts on the most recent activities in which I participated and for which White Crane is a sponsor. Just a little over a year ago, I sat down with Eric Rofes to go over what turned out to be one of his last published articles, Gay Bodies, Gay Selves: Understanding the Gay Men’s Health Movement. Eric was one of those people who simply brimmed with ideas, and out of this conversation grew a new formulation of his Gay Men’s Health Summits that he wanted to call Gay Men’s Leadership Academy.

The more we talked, the more we realized that his definition of "health" was nearly identical to White Crane’s definition of the term "spirituality." And so the White Crane Gay Men’s Leadership Academy was born. As usual, Eric called in all of the talent he knew….Chris Bartlett and Kevin Trimmel Jones from Philadelphia…T. Scott Pegues from Denver…and they got started. Good thing that was how Eric did things, because half way between the first Academy (attended by 35 amazing men at the Wildwood Retreat in Guerneville, CA) Eric dropped dead of a heart attack.

But because of his brilliant way of delegating and organizing, this group never dropped a stitch (Chris, honey…that reference was for you, my sweet-faced knitter!)…The second Academy was equally well-attended by equally amazing men of every age, race and stripe, from Boston, Providence, New York City, Albany and Philadelphia.

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Somewhere, Eric was smiling.

The idea always was to create an opportunity for leaders working in gay men’s health, to meet other leaders…from as broad a spectrum of fields as we could imagine and attract. The idea was to stretch, challenge and stimulate…to move people out of the old boxes of thinking, particularly the way of thinking of gay people in troubled, pathological terms…in HIV terms…in addiction terms. In what I personally think of as Stockholm Syndrome terms of attempting to show straight society that "we’re just like you except for what we do in bed"…when the bedroom is probably the only place we have in common. How do gay people begin to celebrate and embrace their unique differences, their healthy, different perspective on things? And how, as leaders, do we demonstrate what a valuable contribution to society, not hat in hand, but proudly showing off our "healthy psychic drag"!!!

This wasn’t Eric’s phrasing, but it comes to mind, again and again for me, and it seems clear to me that what we were asking anyone who was inspired to attend:

Who would we be without the struggle?

How might we be without a struggle?

How do we formulate what a healthy life is for gay people? What are the markers and milestones from which we might build and measure a healthy life as GLBT people? These are questions White Crane has been asking for almost two decades. These leaders gathered to continue that discussion.

When it is a given that perhaps 10% of our brothers and sisters may be struggling with HIV or methamphetamine addiction, doesn’t this necessarily mean that 90% of our brothers and sisters are leading lives of quiet — but healthy — isolation? How do we connect? How do we build on this? How do we capitalize on what Eric (and Chris and Scott and Kevin) term an "asset-based," rather than deficit-based, way of thinking? Is methamphetamine really worthy of being called "an epidemic"? Sure it’s a problem for some people…so is smoking in the gay community. There are probably a lot of people for whom sexual addiction and drinking are problems, too. But are we being stampeded into a panic? Is the fear-mongering that we see in the news on a nightly basis, being used to keep us as a community off balance? Is it possible that by strengthening  areas where we are successful, healthy individuals as a whole, that this will redound to those members of our community who need help?

Is there a healthy forest beyond the pathological trees?  Just asking…

These were just some of the questions that inspired this undertaking. I was unable to attend the first of the Academies in Guerneville, but was able to get to Easton Mountain for the second.

First of all, what a wonderful place! If you haven’t gone to Easton Mountain,either for a workshop or a personal retreat, please do. Check out their programming. This is a marevelous asset in the community, run by a community of men with a really big vision of health, spirit and community. P1010002

For four days, absolutely wonderfully intelligent, sensitive and imaginative men…ranging in age from early 20s to late 50s…gold to gray…black to brown to yellow to pink… African-American, Asian, Latino, Caucasian…if anyone was left out it wasn’t from lack of trying to be as inclusive as possible…got to know one another, shared, confronted and otherwise debated, demanded and decided. Exercises in expanding thinking and challenges to old thinking were interspersed with and nourished by incredible meals in the idyllic setting that is Easton Mountain.P1010013

What did we learn? What did we decide? In all honesty I would have to say the answers to these reasonable questions are still formulating in my mind. I look forward to hearing from the colleagues I made that weekend. I know for certain that White Crane will continue with the Academy, on both coasts, with Chris and Scott and Kevin….and David A. and Tauheed Z. and Steven B., Pablo C., Matty H., Andres H., Tim C., Michael M., Marc M., Harlan S., Angel O., Eric K., Chris M., Bill J, Fred L., Brandon A., Peter L., Nayck F., Dennis H., Rexaford D, William K., and Michael D. Thanks gentlemen, for an amazing weekend.

A word on the "age range" mentioned above…as well as the focus on "health." I know of at least one, esteemed leader in the arts community here in NYC who opted not to attend because he felt he might be "too old." And I think he was struggling with how to connect his expertise in the field of theater and arts with the stated purpose of "gay men’s health."

This was a pity…and I plan on continuing the conversation with this friend. Because it was the very differences he would have brought to this weekend that would have made his contribution unique, interesting and valuable. Remember, the intent was to break out of the old boxes of thinking. So the differences of age, race and areas of expertise could only add to the mix and make it richer. A good deal of time was spent even defining the term "leader." Old accepted definitions were challenged, reexamined and, I think, a new seed of an idea… about how to lead, and who leads, and where we might be being lead…was planted. I mentioned that Eric’s definition of "health" was the same as our definition of "spiritual." That is to say, it is anything that provides you with, and nurtures in you, a deeper relationship with yourself, your community and the world. It is consciousness…of yourself, your community, the world. It is a form of  "deep ecology."  P1010014

The plan is to continue. A Gay Men’s Health Yahoo! group has been set up for attendees to continue the conversation…to continue the network…to plan for next year’s Gay Men’s Leadership Academy (coming soon to a link near you!).

We hope you think about coming. We hope you come.

Bo Young, Current Affairs

Circle Voting

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We wanted to call particular attention to White Crane contributor and Advisory Board member Murray Edelman’s newest project, Circle Voting. To quote the site:

    "The circle is an important symbol in the lives and ceremonies of traditional people as it refers to the connectedness of all life. When we meet in a circle we are all at the same level and interdependent.

    "The important policy issues of today are also about circles, living in balance with the environment and respecting circles of different peoples (human rights, education, social justice) and honoring the value of life (affordable healthcare); these can be called the "Circles of Life."   

    "In politics today, these issues are objectified and manipulated to be used as weapons for gaining power in a campaign, and the issues are often used for pitting one group against another. For politicians it is about getting elected and re-elected — raising large amounts of money and getting the right people to vote. But these are issues about our hearts and lives. It is no wonder many of us are alienated from politics today."

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Murray Edelman is one of the innovating elders of the gay community, going back to his early work in gay bathhouses, as a faerie, his support of Arthur Evans’ seminal writings and many years of service and support with Clyde Hall, now as the President of the Board, for the Naraya Preservation Council. We urge you to check out Circle Voting.

Bo Young, Culture, Current Affairs, Entertainment

A Brilliant Success!

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Where 2 Start?!

Riseupand_shout_2_1 Rise Up and Shout! was a glittering evening at the beautiful Barnsdall Theater next to the exquisite Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park. Seventeen wonderfully talented, young gay men and lesbians, ranging in age from 16 to their late-20s, danced, sang, read and otherwise entertained and regaled a packed house. Thai Rivera was the hilarious Master of Ceremonies. Already paying his dues across the country in stand-up comedy clubs, this young talent had a sharp and smart sense of humor that kept the evening moving. A year’s worth of work, headed by White Crane contributor and Advisory Board member, Mark Thompson (and his estimable partner, Malcolm Boyd) and the efforts of Don Kilhefner and the Los Angeles Men’s Medicine Circle, resulted in an inclusive rainbow of ethnicities and genders offering bright and shining acts that gave us poetry, opera, drag, the spirit of Tennessee Williams and dancing (that only made me wish my knees still worked that way!)

Let me see if I can recall it all (links are provided where available…some of the kids are so young and so new they don’t even have web pages….imagine that!)…musician, Richard Rocha, comedian Sandy Helen Bowles, actor Brionne Davis, folk singer Angie Evans, the Voices of G.L.A.S.S. (which, despite their name were dancers…G.L.A.S.S. is Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services, one of the most important gay and lesbian services organizations in Los Angeles, providing shelter, food, therapy and other nurturing support to outcast gay and lesbian youth), rapper JenRO, filmmaker and poet Steven Liang.

Singer/songwriter Dan Holguin was followed by tenor Greg Iriart, pianist Peter Kirkpatrick, the glittering and outrageous John Quale, poet Elliott Reed and of course, being L.A., a line-up of actors including Corey Saucier, who did a wonderful reflection on aging in the gay community, Derek Ringold and a garage band, sLoW…I’m running out of breath!  The panoply of talent was masterfully directed by Broadway and Disney movie veteran, Jim Pentecost. And, as if this wasn’t fabulous enough, the whole evening was a benefit for White Crane Institute.

It was wonderful. Watch for these young people…some of them are surely going to be the rising stars of tomorrow. But more importantly, as Don Kilhefner put it in his heartfelt introduction that evening, this was an opportunity for us elders to bless these young talents and welcome them into the community. In an era when transitions are rarely noted, (if not reduced to mere marketing) it was an exciting and moving evening of "Generation Conversation." A full length documentary, due out Spring 2007, is being prepared after months of following the performers and organizers up to their stellar debut at the Barnsdall Theater.

On a personal level it was my pleasure to sit for a series of portraits by noted artist P1010018(and White Crane winter issue featured interview) Don Bachardy.

Bachardy, pictured at the left, works with almost breathtaking speed; each portrait takes under two hours (though try holding one position for that length of time and you’ll see it’s grueling work for a model). He works in acrylics and his gaze is like a laser scanner you feel taking in every inch of your face. He has pots of paints and an enameled cafeteria tray as a pallette and at times his brush simply sweeps across the watery splashes of color he’s pooled on the tray and picks up an opalescent array of colors on the brush.

P1010029_1Here’s Bachardy in a self-portrait at left.

At the same time, while he is working very quickly, sketching on the paper with the colors as he captures you, on some level it would be nice to be able to smile…you know, give the world your best, friendly face? But it is physically impossible to hold a smile for that perP1010032_1iod of time, and you end up with this deep, serious gaze being recorded, to say nothing of the actual interaction between you as the subject and Bachardy as the painter. The effect is, I will admit, slightly unsettling when you finally get to see what he has created. One person called his vision "Bachardy’s eagle eye."

You can see one of the amazing acrylic portraits of me here. We did five! 

My friends Robert Croonquist, Robert Rigdon and I also did the grand architectural tour of the booming downtown Los Angeles, specifically to see the spectacular Disney Music Hall which is P1010034everything and more that it has been cracked up to be.  We walked in and around the hall, climbing into some of the swooping titanium forms themselves, and in and around the truly amazing addition to Los Angeles. Imagine our delight and amazement as we were leaving to walk Grand Street to see the new R.C. cathedral, to run into none other P1010044_1than Frank Gehrey himself being photographed on the sidewalk!

The Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of Angels, was interesting, an almost blank wall to the community in the style of the old Spanish plazas and the missions encP1010045_1losure of various businesses. Inside is a very beautiful set of tapestries depicting the congregation of saints facing towards the altar. The "mission plaza" was a-buzz with people that Sunday. The cathedral has it’s own "Hollywood" touches, with the late Gregory Peck entombed in the mausoleum and the grand and heavy bronze doors and sconces in the cathedral created by Angelica Huston’s husband, Robert Graham.

Bo Young, Current Affairs, Entertainment, The Magazine

Off to the Left Coast!

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I’m off to Los Angeles today to attend Rise Up and Shout! the special event on Saturday, September  9th, produced by the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Medicine Circle to benefit White Crane.
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I’m really excited about it and the opportunity to visit with Malcolm Boyd and Mark Thompson, sit for a portrait with Don Bachardy and, later, work with White Crane Institute Advisory Board member, Robert Croonquist to produce an oral history video on the San Francisco Hula Palace with bon vivant and activist, Lee Mentley.

L.A. is my old stomping grounds, so it will be good to see old friends. Now if I could only remember how to drive on a freeway!

WC69 - Generation/Conversation

Stories From A Gay Elder

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by Murray Edelman

I’ve been wrestling with the question: just what is my role as a gay elder?

In traditional cultures, elders are held in a place of honor for what they have contributed to the community and for the history and tradition they carry. In our culture, where history is recorded in books and film, traditions are constantly changing. So it is fair to ask: just what do gay elders have to offer today?

I’ve found part of the answer to be in the stories that I tell:

In 1965 I literally discovered my sexuality at the age of 21 while living in Washington D.C. A couple of weeks after locating a gay bar and having sex for the first time with a man, I was invited to an "after the bar party."

The party was mostly homosexuals. I saw two men dancing together for the first timne in my life, and their affection touched me very deeply. When I danced with women, I never felt anything special. But just seeing tenderness between men was incredibly exciting.

The suddenly the police appeared everywhere. We were all arrested. I was confused and very scared. I thought of claiming that I was the date of a woman standing near me, but I was too scared to ask her to front for me. All the feelings of guilt and fear about being a homosexual were now compounded by this arrest, possible exposure, and what it would mean for my career, given that the Federal government had required me to sign an oath that I wasn’t a homosexual.

We were marched into a cluster of paddy wagons. I made my first contact with a gay man that wasn’t laden with sexual overtones. As I relaxed, I intuitively felt the connection with being gay and the civil rights movement. I started chanting, very softly "We shall overcome, we shall overcome some day." Others in the paddy wagon joined me as we were driven to the police station for booking and possible public exposure. What a way to discover your sexuality! This was only four years before Stonewall.

Fortunately the police kept it to themselves; they booked us for disorderly conduct and we paid them a fine. That was quite a bit for one night, but it was noteworthy in another way. After we were booked, I went home with one of the men in the paddy wagon; the events of that night had brought us close and I had my first experience of touching and being held by another man. Earlier that night I witnessed gay affection for the first time; later I received grace.

The spirit that spoke to me in the paddy wagon stayed with me. Once I fully acknowledged my sexual desires, I felt betrayed by society for keeping it such a big secret. Many others chose to blame themselves. They spent years in psychoanalysis to become straight or even worse, shock treatment. Others tried to deny their sexuality by joining a seminary or staying in an unhappy marriage. I did go into therapy, but I made it clear from the beginning that I was doing it to adjust and not to change.

In the late 1960’s adjustment meant having a lover, a pet, and many kitchen appliances. It also meant keeping our sexuality to ourselves and our circle of gay friends. The cost of exposure in the workplace was too high. And even with friends we totally trusted, we might let them figure it out, but we certainly didn’t want to make them uncomfortable or "rub their face in it."

As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I wanted to study homosexuality, but I was afraid others would make connections and I would be stigmatized in my career. Yet, while I was cautious in my actions, that conenction with the larger picture stayed with me.

In December, 1969, after the Stonewall riots, Henry Wiemhoff (one of the many lost to AIDS) and I called a small group of gay men and women together near the university to talk about Stonewall and what it all meant. Some of the attendees talked of walking around the block 10 times before coming in. Was it paranoia or precaution? A couple of years earlier the Chicago Tribune had published the names of men arrested in a bathhouse raid. The article destroyed their careers.

Most, like my lover of three years, were totally immobilized by the fear. He was furious with me that I would consider participating in the group’s first action — to be interviewed on the campus radion station. We would not give our names; we just wanted people to know we existed. He was so furious that he threatened to leave me if I was on the program. Why? Someone could recognize my voice or someone could see me at the station and then we would be at risk. (He didn’t leave, but the relationship didn’t last very long after that.)

In those early meetings, we considered telling others we were gay. It was a pretty overwhelming thought for me. Would it mean isolation from peers and professors and the stigma of being homosexual following me for my entire career? And what about my family?

But we also had a vision of change. Women and blacks had led the way for change. Also, I knew the problem with being gay was not inside me but outside. The closets were in our heads; at least we hoped so.

But it was a step into the unknown. Why risk my career and possibly my life?

Thankfully, many others have made this kind of tortured decision, but at least they had seen others come out and survive and they had a movement behind them. We didn’t have any of that. And once the decision to come out was made and acted on, it couldn’t be undone.

At a personal level it required a lot of sorting out. I was a happy, well-adjusted homosexual at the time. Why take big risks? Yet I felt so much more alive when I talked about gay politics and feminism. While I spent time reading about social change in school, I was at a popint where I could make real social change happen in my own community. For the first time I could feel my power as a leader and I liked it. (I was always the outcast in right field.) The vision powered me in ways I had never felt before. Yet, would this group, would this "movement" stay together? Am I really like them? Why not let others take the risks.

At one level it was about taking calculated risks; at another level it was about stepping into a vision of the future and being so alive, so clear and so powerful. So I started revealing my "secret" to friends, to my academic advisor…steps that could not be undone. Others came to our meetings and followed in our footsteps. We were no longer a gay discussion group at the university, but the center of the Gay Liberation movement of Chicago.

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from the current issue of White Crane. We are a reader-written, reader-supported publication. To read more from this article, we invite you to subscribe to White Crane. Thanks!

Murray Edelman, who in addition to being an elder is a longtime innovator in the gay community, is beginning a very interesting political experiment called "Circle Voting." Check it out at www.CircleVoting.com

Bo Young, The Magazine

Our Bad

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Dan and I just want to let readers know that we are aware of the problems with the current issue of White Crane (and we’ve probably learned that we shouldn’t try to publish anything when Mercury is retrograde!) particularly with the important article by Don Kilhefner.

First of all, we want you to know that the full article, without the printing errors, is on line. And, finally, we feel this article, Gay Adults! Gay Adults Where Are You?, is so important, that we will be re-running it in issue #70 so readers can read it and see the missing text, and enjoy the full idea of the piece.

Many of you have written to us about this. Both Dan and I apologize to Don and to our readers for the errors. We are working to make sure it doesn’t happen again. (I feel compelled to explain it wasn’t in the copy editing that this error happened…it happened at the printers!)

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Online Exclusive: Culture Jamming

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An Online Exclusive from White Crane

Culture Jamming
Bringing creative energy to Youth-adult partnerships
BY STEPHEN SILHA

Every time we gather, we create culture.

It doesn’t matter how many of us there are… if we’re alone, with a friend/lover, or a community meeting, when eyes meet—we’re creating culture.

I became aware of this when I volunteered to help with a week-long Power of Hope workshop for teens and caring adults in 2000. When teens and adults consciously create culture together, a magical synergy of hope and experience, innocence and potency emerges.

I’m convinced that without creative partnerships between elders and youth, we humans will self-destruct. It’s part of evolution’s call that we co-create our future.

Yet, as Power of Hope’s co-founder, Charlie Murphy (yes, the gay singer/songwriter who wrote “Burning Times” and “Gay Spirit”) says, there’s a silent apartheid between youth and adults in today’s culture which makes true partnerships challenging.

“Adults project their despair about the future onto the young,” he says. “They smother them with material things and overactivity, which means they don’t get a chance to develop their interior side.”

I’ve been doing work with youth for many years—in journalism, in community service, and most recently in a series of youth-adult dialogues on Vashon Island, near Seattle, where I live.

The essence of the youth-adult dialogues, which we (a group of youth and adults from my community) learned from going to Whidbey Island and experiencing a Power of Hope dialogue, is creating a field of common creative play as a predecessor to conversation.

“Youth thrive in the company of adults who are passionate about life, alive to their own creativity,” Charlie says.  Gay men, in many cases, are ready to create these partnerships.

It’s not easy with all the built in stereotypes and prejudices we and they carry about the “other.”  This includes sexual stereotypes on all sides of the equation.
Why not apply some of the principles that underlie Radical Faerie culture to relationships between youth and elders?

For example, subject-subject consciousness. What does it look like when neither the youth nor the elder is an object—both are subjects…of their own lives, of the community, of their relationships?  Or as Tony Kushner might say, what if we look at each other (across the generations) as prophets?

“Adults need to pursue their own calling so youth can do the same, appropriate to their stages in life,” Charlie suggests. “Education could change from a dead one-way street—fitting kids into roles—to a vibrant conversation, where everybody is finding their calling.  We need to create a zone where we’re all on our creative edge.”

Using creative writing, theater improv, visual and verbal art, youth and adults can create together, raising their voices and putting out visions of a future that’s fun, heart-centered, whole.

Why not acknowledge the inner life? Of ourselves, of each other. A little silence welcomes those inner voices. The way of the heart circle—speaking and listening from a deeper place—can enrich even one-on-one encounters.

Charlie has found that “young people are deeper, more caring than we generally give them credit for. So much so, they don’t realize it themselves.” This is also true of the young parts of ourselves, which are awakened and enlivened by creative contact with youth.

Another faerie principle that might help with intergenerational communication is “askance” —looking at things sideways, from different angles, with a dose of humor.

I was amazed when I helped a group of kids at a Power of Hope summer camp create a “Zine” which they called “Rising.” Instead of asking people to write articles, they created graffiti boards around the camp, in bathrooms and other places, where people felt free to express themselves. The Zine was filled with wisdom and silliness from those graffiti boards—a new news source in the future?

As we reinvent various aspects of our culture that need fixing—health care, communication, transportation, governance, relationship to spirit—collaborations between those who’ve “seen it all” and those who “see a better way” will make it possible.

For more information on Power of Hope, visit their website.
Stephen Silha is a freelance writer, facilitator and communications consultant in Washington State. He can be contacted via his website. www.goodnewsgooddeeds.org

Bo Young, Current Affairs, Entertainment

Rise Up and Shout!

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I know it’s only the end of July, but that means it’s soon to be August, and before you know it, it will be September and the wonderful event, Rise Up and Shout! will be happening.
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The brainchild of Mark Thompson, Malcolm Boyd, Don Kilhefner and the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Medicine Circle, Rise Up and Shout! will be a benefit for White Crane.

Rise Up and Shout! will spotlight emerging talent in a very special and innovative show to be held on Saturday, September 9, 2006 at the Barnsdall Theater, located adjacent to the historic Hollyhock House in Griffith Park, Hollywood. An audience of more than 300 people is expected  and discussions are underway to televise and videotape the event so it can be broadcast on gay cable television!

For more information, click on the links, or call Omar Minwalla at 323-874-9561.

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Welcome to White Crane’s new blog!

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We’ve been looking for a way to communicate with all of you for some time.

Things are always happening and we’d like to keep you better informed of the work of bringing together White Crane and the general work of exploring Gay Culture and Wisdom.

If you’re new to White Crane I hope you’ll take a moment to explore our current issue on the journal blog, find out more about us on our history pages,  and explore our main site at gaywisdom.org where you’ll find our archives.  We’re one of the oldest gay publications in existence and we’d love to hear from you.

We’ll be joined in this endeavor by a revolving crew of writers and bloggers.  We hope you enjoy the mix here and come again.  We hope to have a daily fix of information for the discriminating reader.

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